Abstract:
In 1927, James Weldon Johnson published God's Trombones: Seven
Negro Sermons in Verse, a book of poems based on sermons heard in the
African American Church. There are eight accompanying illustrations by Aaron
Douglas. These images visually interpret the subject matter of the poems in a
style that blends Cubism, Orphism, and Art Deco. Douglas depicted all the
figures in these images, human and supernatural, in the form of shadow
silhouettes, a stylistic practice he continued throughout his artistic career. The
shadow is an ancient archetype in human mythology and psychology. This
thesis looks at the depiction of shadows in a Jungian context. I explore the
possibility that the use of the shadow allows deeper communication between
the audience and the image by accessing the collective unconscious. I also
examine the shadow as a metaphor for the socio-political oppression of African
Americans rampant in the period between the wars.